Cassandra Speaks

When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes

By: Elizabeth Lesser

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers?

Elizabeth Lesser believes that if women’s voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history, humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories - stories that value caretaking, champion compassion, and elevate communication over vengeance and violence.

Cassandra Speaks is about the stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It’s about the stories we still blindly cling to, and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales, the guiding myths, the religious parables, the literature and films and fairy tales passed down through the centuries about women and men, power and war, sex and love, and the values we live by. Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity. We have outgrown so many of them, and still they endure. This book is about what happens when women are the storytellers too - when we speak from our authentic voices, when we flex our values, when we become protagonists in the tales we tell about what it means to be human.

Lesser has walked two main paths in her life - the spiritual path and the feminist one - paths that sometimes cross but sometimes feel at cross-purposes. Cassandra Speaks is her extraordinary merging of the two. The best-selling author of Broken Open and Marrow, Lesser is a beloved spiritual writer, as well as a leading feminist thinker. In this book, she gives equal voice to the cool water of her meditative self and the fire of her feminist self. With her trademark gifts of both humor and insight, she offers a vision that transcends the either/or ideologies on both sides of the gender debate.

Brilliantly structured into three distinct parts, Part One explores how history is carried forward through the stories a culture tells and values, and what we can do to balance the scales. Part Two looks at women and power and expands what it means to be courageous, daring, and strong. And Part Three offers “A Toolbox for Inner Strength”. Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change, and that no one - woman or man - is immune to the corrupting influence of power. She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted.

Cassandra Speaks is a beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling, memoir, and cultural observation. Women, men, and all people will find themselves in this book, and will come away strengthened, opened, and ready to work together to create a better world for all people.

©2020 Elizabeth Lesser (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

I am such a stupid man

I feel the beginnings of an enlightening. I can only hope not to stand in my own way. Thank you.

Everything I Needed and More

This book is incredible!!! It addressed so many deep feelings of mine that I didn’t have words to express. It’s so beautiful and heart centered and the narrator is amazing!

Must read

This book has so much to offer to get people, especially women, to see how much our society needs balance of perspective in the world. I think everyone should read or listen to it.

One of the best books I have ever read.

One of the best and most inspiring books I have ever read. It talks about changing history and society's narrative and outlook past and present by incorporating the female perspective, voice, values, and presence. And it does so in such a natural, kind, healing, and conciliatory way. Simple things like taking a fresh look at what we consider power and leadership are or should be, asserting our opinions and values while also listening to others that may think differently, etc. All from a place of love and partnership. No war here, no confrontation, just truly seeing and hearing each other. It made me dream of a much better world, that I want to believe is possible.

Wow

Everything about this book has me 😳

I learned so much about myself and understand more why i feel and think the way i do. It’s time to shift our written story and create our own. Thank you thank you!

Another great rec from Brené Brown!

I couldn’t wait to read this. It was everything I hoped it would be and more!

So much in one book to benefit the world!

I would recommend this book to everyone. Elizabeth Lesser is an engaging writer and her ideas in this book are profound. The other writers, philosopher and scientist that she quotes are all world class, and if people can understand and attempt to follow her suggestions, the world would immediately be a far better place. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Brilliant

Touches on everything about being a woman and what it means to create power from the feminine.

Good

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I expected a bit more on women in storytelling but was ok with what was given. I enjoyed this much more than Women Who Run With the Wovles which is a similar type of book.

Awesome! just wish it was more inclusive.

Loved this book and wanted to give it a 5. I will never look at historical portrayals of women, including in the Bible, the same way. For that I am very grateful.
The performance, narrator were on point!
My rating reflects my love for the material and overall Lesser's words. However I believe in Lesser's efforts to smash patriarchal ways and storytelling she missed a critical mark of being gender inclusive. Yes she included women, but in a binary sense that I find part and parcel of a patriarchal system. I was waiting for her to broaden her scooe to be fully gender inclusive of non- binary folx. If the book was written 10 or 20 years ago I would have given it more grace in this area, but it was published in 2020. Perhaps a second edition or follow up book will broaden this lens?